Evaluating Articles
There are several factors to consider when evaluating journal articles.
Is the article scholarly or peer-reviewed?
"Peer reviewed" (or "refereed") means that an article is reviewed by experts in that field before the article gets published. Some databases allow you to limit your search to Peer Reviewed or Refereed articles. Often you can click on the journal title in a database and get information about that journal, including if it is peer-reviewed.
You can also check to see if a journal is peer-reviewed using Ulrich’s, a directory of all journals, magazines, news, and any other periodically-released resource. Type the journal title in the search box (leave off A, The, An, etc. at the start of the title) and either hit "Enter" or click on the search button (green magnifying glass).
Find your title in the search results and click on it to see the record. Look for “Refereed” and “Yes.” If you do not see “Refereed” in the Basic Description column, it is not. Refereed is the same as peer-reviewed.
Is the article timely?
For some assignments the articles should be published within the last 5 or 10 years. Most databases let you limit the search to articles published within a specified range of years.
Is the article relevant?
The articles you use should be relevant to your research topic and to each other. One way to find relevant articles is to use search terms appropriate for your topic. Another important step is reading and critiquing the article. Once you have read and critiqued the article, you can decide if it is relevant to your topic.
If you have any questions about evaluating an article, please do not hesitate to ask a librarian for help.
Qualitative versus Quantitative
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research methods are focus groups, interviews, content analysis, etc. In short, the data collected will mostly be words.
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research methods focus on collection numerical data. In short, the data collected will be numbers, such as sampling and statistics.
Mixed Methods
Mixed methods articles include a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods.
On this page are examples of abstracts of different types of research articles. We have highlighted the information you are looking for when you are evaluating and article.
Examples of Review, Quantitative and Qualitative Articles
This is an example of a review article. The author selected existing research articles on the topic and examined them, critiquing the existing literature.
Click the arrow to move to the next slide.
This is an example of a quantitative article abstract.
Besides containing the word, quantitative, this abstract references the article's methodology and refers to a statistical analysis and cluster analysis, which are quantitative features.
Permanent link to article record
Click the arrow to continue to the qualitative article.
This is an example of a qualitative article abstract.
Besides containing the Descriptor, Qualitative Research, it also contains a descriptor for Semi-Structured Interviews, which fits with qualitative data collection. Further evidence that supports its qualitative nature are the phrases content analysis and descriptive analysis.
